Second World-Novel

Jennifer and the other Offline Beasts players tried to chase after Scarface and the others who had entered the main structure where the guild hall was located, but the enemies were keeping them busy outside. Death Associates' players and their guild soldiers had now changed roles, from trying to charge into the headquarters to now hindering the defenders from sending assistance.

Selena, who was on the wall, was the closest. She and a squad went down the wall to give chase. They encountered a blockade by World Maker's players at the entrance to the headquarters' main structure. The guild soldiers that were with them created a gap through the blockade for them to pass through, but those guild soldiers had to stay behind to keep the World Maker's players busy.

The ones with Selena were just around twenty players. All of them were Offline Beasts members except for Selena. The one leading them was another higher-up in the guild, Norouter.

"What are the defenses inside this building?" Selena asked while running as fast as possible for an Elementalist.

"Not many," Norouter answered. "Just some low-level players and a few guild soldiers stationed as guards. We never expect them to breach inside here so fast even when most of our force is still alive out there."

They heard a commotion not far ahead. Their location was close to the guild hall already. The enemies might already be inside the guild hall!

When they arrived at the antechamber before the guild hall, they saw the enemies fighting with the players and guild guards stationed there. They also saw the barrier into the guild hall break and three enemies entered. They were Ronald, Scarface, and Grimclaw.

"Oh, no! they had entered the guild hall!" Norouter exclaimed.

World Maker and Death Associates members saw their approach and blocked their way. Gridhacker cast his Gravity Weight Hammer. The hammer appeared above them. It exerted weight on them and slowed their movements

Norouter was a berserker. He used Cry of Rage to eliminate the movement restriction effect and rushed forward with his people. The hammer from Gridhacker's spell was still falling, though. A sentinel in the group took it upon him to receive the hammer, allowing everyone else to continue unharmed.

Stonecleave and several Death Associates players stood in Norouter's way, blocking their advance. "You shall not pass!" He said.

"F*cking G*ndalf-wannabee, dieee…!!" Norouter shouted and charged at him.

*

Inside Offline Beasts guild hall, there was only one player, Nosignal. He was standing behind the command platform. Their last resistance was set in the antechamber outside. Once the enemies entered here, there was virtually little they could do.

Ronald used his Rapid Shot, killing Nosignal in an instant with consecutive headshots.

Scarface ordered Grimclaw to immediately attack the guild core. He himself cast mana bullet and energy bolts at the guild core. Grimclaw rushed forward and arrived soon before the guild core. His halberd immediately hacked the guild core frantically.

The guild core's HP went down rapidly. When it was down to half, Scarface celebrated, 'Yes! We will make it first, we will–'

His thought was cut short as he and all other Death Associates' members received a warning notification. Their guild core was currently being attacked. Every member was told to immediately go and protect it.

"Shit! Hurry up! He had also reached our guild core!" Scarface exclaimed.

---------------

Before Scarface and the others started hitting Offline Beasts' guild core, Jack had just entered the guild hall and was face-to-face against the elite force led by the four Deaths.

All other Death Associates members spread out as instructed. Green Death cast Wild Stampede. Blue Death activated Spectral Projection and rushed toward Jack together with Violet Death who activated Radiant Javelins. Yellow Death squatted and used Shooting Stance.

Jack cast Time Domain. At its current max level, this spell covered a radius of fifty meters. The guild hall was large, but the large AOE of the time domain still covered the entire hall. There was nowhere within the hall that was free of the spell's effect.

Everyone inside the hall except for Jack and Therras immediately had their speed slowed by half. Jack and Therras himself became faster than normal. Jack had no desire to entertain the players here. He cast Teleportation. He wanted to arrive at the guild core with a single spell.

However, the players brought here by Yellow Death were indeed top experts, they had taken action the moment Jack started casting his Time Domain. When Jack started casting his Teleportation spell, multiple ranged attacks sent by those experts had arrived. Even with the time warp, there were just too many attacks. Jack tried to dodge and parry while continuing to cast his spell, but one bullet managed to hit him. It was Yellow Death's Disrupting Shot. It canceled Jack's spell before it was cast.

"So, you want to play this the hard way, eh?" Jack used Shooting Dash, he zoomed toward the guild core.

Despite Jack's increased speed and Death Associates players' decreased speed, Yellow Death was ready in case Jack decided to focus on the guild core. In his shooting stance pose, he swiveled and took a shot.

Yellow Death adjusted his aim to the front of Jack's travel path, taking into calculation the increase in Jack's speed caused by the Time Domain. His skill as an expert marksman was highlighted with this shot.

Bullet traveled extremely fast. But because of the time domain, Jack's mana sense had enough time to warn him about the incoming shot. Jack canceled his shooting dash and stopped just as Yellow Death's bullet passed in front of him. He could just tank this bullet but he decided not to. This bullet could be another special bullet like the Disrupting shot which hit him just now. And he was right, the bullet shot by Yellow Death was Lock Shot. If Jack was hit by this bullet, he would be immobilized.

Before Jack could resume, several rings of light locked his body. It was Magic Binds cast by multiple players whose advanced class used to be Mage. The magic bind had appeared with such perfect timing that Jack failed to dodge even when he sensed it.

Those magic players had cast the spell under Yellow Death's instruction in conjunction with his shot just now. He knew even with his expertise, the chance of hitting Jack was very low. After losing to Jack numerous times, Yellow finally accepted the fact that he couldn't win against Jack just with expertise. This made him more dangerous as he now learned to work with others to achieve his goal.

A single magic bind was useless against Jack's overwhelming strength, even more so when Jack was in his supreme dragon form. That's why they used multiple magic binds to hold Jack down. Even though their plan was sound, Jack still had his human race skill, Willpower. Once Willpower was used, all the rings of light locking his body were broken simultaneously.

However, most of those Death Associates players were also human. They did not forget about this skill. The magic binds were simply to hold Jack for a fraction of a second. The real attack hit soon as the area around Jack was covered by a grey field.

This was a spell cast by Blue Death, Spectral Prison. It was the level 50 spell of a Mage Knight. The spell trapped a target in a field with a radius of three meters. Those trapped could still move inside the field but cannot move out of the affected area. While inside the prison, Jack's attributes were reduced to 70% while all damage received was increased by 50%. It was similar to Duke Alfredo's Pyramid Prison spell. The duration of this spell was two minutes

"Yes, got you!" Blue Death exclaimed excitedly.

"Don't get careless!" Yellow Death warned. "All melees, deal with that pet of his. All ranged attackers, finish him!"

Under the effect of the time domain, the sovereign mode Therras was wreaking havoc among the players. When it saw Jack getting imprisoned, it tried to barge through to help. But Jack sent it a mental order to not bother with him. He was smiling as Death Associates' ranged players sent their attacks. He used Gold Scale Armor and spell formation started forming on his left claw.

Yellow had a bad premonition seeing that Jack could still smile. What spell was Jack casting? Even teleportation spells could not escape Mage Knight's Spectral Prison. If one used such a spell, one would find themselves still reappearing inside the spectral prison. Even if Jack could still use his Human race's skill, Willpower, it would also be useless. Jack's movement wasn't restricted, it was just confined to a small space.

Unfortunately, Yellow Death's Disrupting Shot was still on cooldown. He could only use all his other offensive skills in the hope of disturbing Jack's concentration. Jack simply received those assaults without batting an eye, the gold scale armor protected him. His casting wasn't disrupted. Violet Death used Heaven's Spear. The large spear appeared above the imprisoned Jack and fell toward him.

But before the large spear impaled Jack, his spell was completed first. Jack turned incorporeal. With the Ghost Form spell active, he phased through the walls of the spectral prison.

"What…?" Yellow Death stared in disbelief.

During ghost form, Jack's speed was halved. However, the Time Domain was still active, so all the enemies' speed was also halved. In this case, he was still faster than the others. No one could catch him because of the head start he gained from using Shooting Dash earlier. All Death Associates' players could do was just sent their ranged attacks, but those attacks just passed through Jack without affecting him.

Jack arrived before the guild core and canceled his ghost form. He then cast Myriad Venomous Vipers with him and the guild core as its center. Fifteen large green snakes came out of the ground and acted as his bodyguards. Jack also summoned his spirit weapon and called out Arlcard.

"Deal with them, will you?" Jack said to his vampire companion.

Arlcard just replied with a grunt. He had been expectant that Jack summoned him to another war when he received Jack's call. But seeing all these weak players, he felt that he had been called unnecessarily. He folded his arms while standing still and cast Perpetual Sword of Death. Jack's spirit weapon used its ranged mode.

Jack noticed some differences in his spirit weapon. It was now larger and shaped even more like an automaton than a sword. The black blades that flew out of its body to assault the enemies now numbered fourteen instead of eight. The blades' flying speed was also faster. The beam's interval had also reduced from one minute to forty-five seconds. Jack figured this was because his Storm Breaker had upgraded to a unique grade.

Between the time domain's slow, Myriad Venomous vipers' poisonous spits, Arlcard's black swords spell, and the spirit weapon's flying darts, none of Death Associates' players were able to approach Jack. They could only look as Jack started hitting their guild core.

Jack used most of his skills and spells. The guild core's HP went down at an amazingly fast rate. When the guild core was less than thirty percent, Jack accumulated mana in his two claws.

"Now, let's test the improved control of my sword art's third phase!" Jack exclaimed as his two claws exploded into uncountable slashes that battered the guild core.